Biscuitman

The success of Opposition strategy

Sir - With the litany of catastrophes suffered by Labour, for the Opposition to have won one of the safest seats in the country by the skin of its teeth should ring alarm bells.

To see that all is not well, Oliver Letwin (Letters, August 10) merely has to look to his neighbouring constituency to see a recent local council by-election lost to the Lib Dems after being held for nine years, and an entire branch resigning over the broken EPP pledge.

Eight and a half million core voters have deserted the Conservatives since Maastricht.

Bill Woodhouse, Mappowder, Dorset

Sir - With reference to Cllr Martyn Barber's letter (August 10) complaining that "any half-decent opposition would be 10 or 15 points ahead in the opinion polls", it has to be remembered that a huge percentage of the workforce in this country now work either directly or indirectly for the Government and receive gold-plated pensions and other benefits.

This situation therefore makes it almost impossible to get rid of this administration, since, not surprisingly, as the saying has it, turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

Tony Blackman, Southampton

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!